IMP LEMENTATIO N 9.6 Collective Cases C AS E ST U DY In Rangpur, Bangladesh, a paralegal working in a Council of Minorities program on citizenship in the Urdu-speaking community noticed that Ward Councillors were often refusing to sign applications for birth certificates, preventing people from being able to apply for citizenship. The Ward Councillors were unsure whether Urdu-speakers were entitled to the documents. Instead of contacting the councillors directly about individual clients, the paralegal and several affected clients went to the mayor’s office. They showed the mayor a publication the project had created for general informational purposes—a copy of the 2008 High Court decision that confirmed the citizenship rights of the community in the local Bangla language. The mayor of Rangpur called all of the Ward Councillors to clarify the situation and the legal rights of the community. Now, both paralegal clients and other community members are able to get the signatures required for application without a challenge. If a group of people suffers the same documentation, nationality, or citizenship rights violations, especially if it is the result of discrimination, paralegals may pursue solutions with authorities for all of these clients’ cases at once, rather than on a case-by-case basis. This can amplify and bring together clients’ voices, attracting authorities’ attention to the problem and increasing the chance it will be resolved. Collective cases fall somewhere between communal initiatives, such as advocacy or strategic litigation, and individual casework for individual outcomes. They benefit multiple clients but do not necessarily seek to change the system. Paralegal projects often begin with individual cases and only later start doing collective cases as the caseload increases. Almost all of the methods described thus far can be employed in group cases. Examples might include: •M  eeting with a village chief to negotiate an end to the practice of requesting a bribe from community members seeking a witness in documentation applications. •W  riting a letter to authorities to raise the situation of multiple individuals at once. •W  riting a letter or submitting a complaint to national authorities on behalf of a group of affected individuals whose case has not been addressed at the local level. •G  athering a set of forms together from an entire village and bringing them to the nearest regional authority for submission. •A  dvocating before local service-providers to eliminate barriers to access for a particular group. How to ensure collective cases empower clients •M  ake sure clients involved in group cases understand and agree to this approach, particularly when cases come from individuals in different communities. •H  ave affected groups of clients meet with authorities or service providers themselves, with any necessary skills training beforehand. •U  se collective cases as a springboard for community organizing by facilitating contact between the clients involved. •W  hen facilitating submission of applications for a group, where possible involve at least one community member in coordinating the processes and traveling with the paralegal to the regional office, in order to demystify the process and enable the community to carry out group submissions autonomously in the future. 112 | A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y